Jury Finds Yanez Not Guilty In The Death of Philando Castile

After approximately 29 hours of deliberations, the jury in the manslaughter case of St. Anthony, Minnesota police officer Jeronimo Yanez has returned a verdict of not guilty. Yanez was also charged with two felony counts of intentional discharge of a firearm that endangers safety for firing his weapon. When he shot and killed Philando Castile, Castile’s girlfriend and her 4-year old daughter were passengers in the car. Bullets barely missed both of them.

During deliberations, the jury requested to review the transcript of Yanez’s interview with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Judge William H. Leery III denied their request. By Wednesday, the jury was deadlocked, but the judge sent them back to keep deliberating.

Kare11 reports that this morning, the jury handed a note to Judge Leary III requesting to have the transcript of Yanez’s testimony while on the stand and the cross examination read aloud in court. The judge denied their request.

“The City of St. Anthony has concluded that the public will be best served if Officer Yanez is no longer a police officer in our city,” the statement said. “The city intends to offer Officer Yanez a voluntary separation agreement to help him transition to another career other than being a St. Anthony officer.”

Colleagues and parents on Thursday remembered Philando Castile as an ambitious man who served as a role model for hundreds of children before he was fatally shot by a police officer during a traffic stop in Minnesota.

Castile, who was known by friends as Phil, was a cafeteria supervisor at J.J. Hill Montessori Magnet School in Saint Paul, Minn., where he memorized the names of the 500 children he served every day — along with their food allergies, his former coworker said.

“He remembered their names. He remembered who couldn’t have milk. He knew what they could have to eat and what they couldn’t,” Joan Edman, a recently retired paraprofessional at the school, told TIME. “This was a real guy. He made a real contribution. Yes, black lives matter. But this man mattered.”

Hi Jim.
I have to get back to completing a post I started last year about police discretion. I saw that happening in this case when the judge denied the requests of the jury to have access to transcripts. Judges also have discretion.

Apparently the Police have the discretion to do whatever they dam well want to.
Sorry about the language/attitude but this sort of thing is becoming way too commonplace and there are too many people who are willing to sit back and let it happen as long as it isn’t happening to them.

Roderick, those are good bullet points. There is one that is hidden from the public and jurors, but prosecutors and judges know about it. Cases involving law enforcement using deadly force are not litigated on the standard of beyond a reasonable doubt. They are litigated on the standard of abuse of discretion. Law enforcement are including among those called “officers of the court” and all officers of the court are given discretion in the decisions they make.

That is why prosecutors bring forth witnesses to talk about training that is thrown to the side by the defense in favor of presenting that the officer had discretion to use deadly force.

For juries, it then comes to the argument that the officer was given authority to use deadly force, rather than if the officer was reasonable in doing so.

“Kare11 reports that this morning, the jury handed a note to Judge Leary III requesting to have the transcript of Yanez’s testimony while on the stand and the cross examination read aloud in court. The judge denied their request.”

Here’s the full video of Valerie Castille’s reaction to the verdict with my transcript below:

Philando Castile’s mother reacts to verdict:
Transcript:

”My son would never jeopardize anyone else’s life by trying to pull a gun on an officer, and the gun was not fire ready. These are some of the facts that came out in the trial, and I am so very very very very very very very disappointed in the system here in the state of Minnesota. ‘Cuz nowhere in the world do you die from being honest and telling the truth.

“Now, these are some things that you need to know and recognize: there has always been a systemic problem in the state of Minnesota. And me thinking with my common sense that we WOULD get justice in this case, but nevertheless, it ever seems to fail us. The system continues to fail Black people. And, it will continue to fail you all. Like I said, because this happens with Philando, when they get done with us, they’re coming for you, for you, for you, and for all your interracial children. Y’all are next, and you’ll be standing up here, fighting for justice just as well as I am.

”I am so disappointed in the state of Minnesota. My son loved this state. He had one tattoo on his body, and it was of the Twin Cities. The state of Minnesota with TC on it. My son loved this city, and this city KILLED MY SON, and a murderer gets away. Are you kidding me right now?

“We’re not evolving as a civilization. We’re devolving. We have taken steps forward. People have died for us to have these rights, and now we’re devolving. We’re going back down to 1969! Damn! What is it going to take? I’m mad as hell right now. Yes, I am. My first born, one son, dead here in Minnesota.

“Under the circumstances, just because he was a police officer, that makes it okay. Oh, now they’ve got free rein…he’s found innocent on all counts. He shot into a car with no regard for human life, and that’s ‘okay.’ Thank you, (sarcastically) Minnesota. Thank you Minnesota. That’s all I have to say”

The jury made two requests for transcripts. The judge denied them both times. So, I would say that no, the jury did not have access to info so they could apply the facts and evidence to the law. Since the trial was not live streamed, we do not have the ability to look back at videos to re-hear what the jury wanted given to them by way of transcript.

While this verdict is disgusting, it will end up just being the tip of the iceberg due to tRump working so hard to return the equality movement to some where south of 1955! Well under a year in office he has managed to destroy many if not most of the gains that we had made over so many painfully long years… I am beyond disgusted with what our nation is becoming!

Mothman,
What upsets me along with what you’ve pointed out is that people are not organized to be on the same page and work together to effectively advocate for equal justice. Training that teaches shoot to kill as if human beings are rapid animals without regards to the actual situation is, in my opinion, absolutely wrong.

Assigning officers to communities where they have no connection other than to get a paycheck is wrong, in my opinion. Officers need to understand the communities they serve beyond presumptions that everyone is a criminal or would-be criminal.

Xena, A ship with no rudder is unable to be steered! The Democrats have NO leadership and thus have no real direction, and are floating around unable to go in a direction that would help or assist in resolving the problems in this nation. One large and as of yet unaddressed problem that creates the environment for racial divide is the rural vote, that the GOPTP is consistently controlling. While we can use gerrymandering as the excuse, and assign blame on the redistricting as the reason, but is that really the sole reason? When I look at the demographics of many rural voting districts and see that the population in the district is largely black or other minorities, yet the district voted solidly Republican, am I the only person that questions why? Could it be that the candidates offered by both sides do not represent the voters in the district and thus the voters simply abstain from voting? If we truly want change in this nation the we must make the effort to take control of the political process, and that my friend starts with the individual! It is easy to sit back and whine and cry and blame this and that for all of our problems, but until we are ready to get down into the ditches of the process nothing will change…
We have the need for change, we have the desire, but do we have the courage to actually act on the need and desire? Or will we continue to sit back and blame everyone and everything for the problems we face instead of assigning blame to the person staring back at us in the mirror!

Mothman,
I don’t disagree with you. Historically, when people do not believe that any candidate is beneficial, they don’t vote for the lesser of two evils. I don’t necessarily agree with that and there have been times when I wrote in “Mickey Mouse” to reflect my disappointment in those on the ballot.

We do need candidates beyond the two major parties, and we also need candidates from the very districts that they are running to represent.

Hi Caleb! I’d like to hear from the jurors and hopefully, at least two will come forth and say what happened during deliberations. By the judge denying them transcripts they requested, it conveys that jurors who wanted to vote guilty were going to depend on the transcripts and without them, they lacked support for a verdict of guilty. It could be the inconsistent statements made by Yanez.

Ofc. Yanez, was not even convicted of reckless discharge of a firearm, and yet the officer who had been standing on the passenger side of the vehicle scrambled back away to safety. That action by that officer tells me that Diamond Reynolds, like that officer, was also in danger of being hit by a stray bullet. (We already know that a bullet landed 16 inches from her four year old daughter in the backseat.)

Yes, Yahtzee, I thought they would find guilt for the reskless discharge of a firearm, but hang on the manslaughter. Did you see the video of the jurors? It’s amazing that they would decide based on what they couldn’t see, rather than what they could. It’s also amazing that the juror interviewed would bring up racial profiling during deliberations when that had not been discussed during trial. It appears that she was looking for a reason to have a mistrial declared on that issue alone.

Tanya, thanks for the link to your blog. I want to let you know that your comment was in the spam folder. That seldom happens with comments submitted by signing-in with your WordPress account. I’ve read where that happens to others when they post the same comment to lots of blogs on the same day. I don’t know if that is what you did, but wanted to give you a head’s up in the event you have posted to other blogs and your comment is not appearing on the public board.